Episode 16: How Can I Improve My Gut Health?

Hi, my name is Kristen Pardue and I'm a registered dietitian. Today I'm going to be talking to all about gut health. And to talk about gut health, I first want to talk to you about toxins and how toxins can affect our gut health. 

Body Burden

So I want to talk to you about the body burden and how toxins affect our body over time. For example, you're born at birth with hardly any toxins in your body. Well, that once was true but now studies are telling us that the average baby is born with two hundred and eighty-seven chemicals in their body at birth that were stored and passed down from the mother. And so you think about over time the toxins are building up in our bodies slowly but surely we're exposed more and more toxins. Think of it as like a bucket over time that buckets filling up; it's filling up with more and more toxins; and eventually that bucket is going to overflow. 

Detoxification

It's so important that we really focus on proper detoxification methods in our body so that we can probably get rid of those toxins and lower the amount of toxins that we're exposed to. And I know that we have our kidneys and our liver and our stomach all of that to help filter out the toxins in our body. But again, our body just wasn't made for the amount of toxins that is exposed to nowadays. So studies show us that if we lower the load of toxins that our bodies are exposed to health conditions decreased dramatically. 

How Can I Improve My Gut Health? 

Everyone can improve their health by optimizing these two areas of their life. One, proper nutrition and digestion. And two, oils for digestive health.

Proper Nutrition and Digestion

Area number one, proper nutrition and digestion. Our food has changed. We have departed from the ways of nature and we don't eat as nature intended. And we're paying the price. Our society is busier than ever so we're running our kids to soccer practice or baseball games. We're running around. And so what we end up doing is, you know, eating packaged foods or processed foods or fast food for convenience because we're busier than ever. Unfortunately, that takes a toll on our bodies. And also, our food has changed in the fact that GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) were introduced into our society in the late 1990s and this was done to maximize profitability. And that affects our gut health as well. Scientists have deemed our gut the second brain. So if we focus on healing the gut, we can actually help support and healing our brains. 

So how can you help support and healing your gut? One area is getting tested for heavy metals. I highly recommend everybody get tested for heavy metals if they have any health issues. Just do that if you do tests for high levels for example of mercury in your body or any other heavy metals you can work with a medical doctor or nurse practitioner on property detoxification methods for getting that out of your body.

Food Sensitivities

It's important to focus on food sensitivities and inflammation. A lot of times people don't think they're sensitive to any foods because they don't have any symptoms, right? Well there's the 72 hour delay so you may eat a specific food and then not even have any symptoms show up for 72 hours. And a lot of times people don't know that they're, you know, being tired all the time or having had tension or having any other health issues could be linked to a food sensitivity. And so I recommend everyone do a 30 day food sensitivity elimination diet just to see if a potential food could be causing some of their health issues even if are only minor health issues. You can also get an IgG food sensitivity test done by a functional medicine doctor or nurse practitioner or dietician. 

Another way for supporting your gut is eating organic or growing your own food so that way you're able to limit the amount of pesticides and antibiotics in your food that you're exposed to. If you're growing your own or buying organic keeping your gut healthy and happy will naturally help your body get rid of the toxins a lot easier. 

4 R Program

I recommend following the four “R” program and that is 

• Number one, Remove the bad. So, you want to remove the bad bacteria that inflammatory foods and also Candida. 
• Number two, Replace with good. So, we want to replace with good things such as digestive enzymes or hydrochloric acid. 
• Number three, we want to Re-inoculate with beneficial bacteria. So, for example, probiotics we want to keep a healthy balance of good bacteria in our gut. 
• Number four, Repair the lining of the gut wall. 

DigestZen TerraZyme^®

So now let's talk about digestive enzymes and doTERRA’s digestive enzymes are called TerraZyme. And I can't say enough good things about this supplement, and I believe that most everybody needs to be taking TerraZyme every single day. Here's why. The aftermath of our Western diet—I call it “the SAD diet” (the Standard American Diet)—has caused most people to have enzyme deficiencies. We’re eating a lot of processed foods. We're heating our foods to high temperatures. So heating any food above 116 degrees renders most enzymes that were naturally found in foods inactive, and again, the processed foods, the packaged foods, they don't have any digestive enzymes to help us digest the food that we're eating.

And I always tell people, “You're not what you eat, you are what you absorb,” so you may be eating all the healthy food but if your gut health has been compromised at all over time, and most peoples’ has, then if you're not properly absorbing those nutrients, the vitamins, the minerals, the protein, the carbohydrates, the fat in that food, then it's not doing you a lot of good. So you want to be able to absorb those foods properly. And so that's where TerraZyme comes into play because it's going to help break down the protein, the fats, the carbohydrates so that you can absorb those into your body so it can do your body good. And I recommend taking one in three capsules with each meal every single day.

PB Assist+^®

Another great supplement that's important for your gut health is PB Assist probiotics, and I love that the doTERRA has the adult probiotics, and for our little ones, we have the kids PB Assist Jr.—the kids probiotics. And my kids absolutely love the PB Assist Jr. They think that they're getting a treat. They think they're getting candy whenever I give them the kids probiotics because it's like the little pixie stick things, but it's not bad for them because it's full of beneficial bacteria.

The adult probiotics is, again, it's beneficial bacteria. We've got to re-establish the gut health with good bacteria. It's going to improve your immune system, improves digestion, and improves gut health. What I love about our probiotics compared to other probiotics is that they come in a time-release, double capsule delivery system. And what that does is going to really protect those sensitive cultures so that they can go through the stomach acid and survive the acid in our stomach and get to our small intestine so that our body can properly utilize those beneficial bacteria.

Essential Oils for Digestive Health

Area number two that I'm going to be talking about for your gut health is oils for digestive health. My top three oils for digestive health are number one, DigestZen® the digestive blend. Number two, Ginger, and number three, Fennel essential oil. And sure, there are several other essential oils that I love for gut health such as Cardamom and Frankincense, but I just want to highlight these three today. 

Most of you already use DigestZen essential oil blend frequently, but I just have to highlight it because it's such a powerhouse. It's a blend of different essential oils, and sure, Ginger and Fennel essential oils are found in that blend, but it also contains Anise and Caraway and Tarragon and so it's just a great, great blend to really support our digestive system and really help us, you know, really just digest things better, but also soothing that digestive tract. 

So Fennel essential oil and Basil essential oil, again, they're going to help soothe the digestive tract helps support gut health and really just help everything function properly. 

So as you can see good health affects our entire body. And so if we want to really keep our body healthy, have optimal health, optimal energy, feel our best, we have to focus on good health every single day and not just for ourselves but for our children as well. So probiotics, digestive enzymes, Fennel, DigestZen, Ginger essential oil all great things to help support our gut health and keep our body living along abundant life.